Summary of Readings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Summary of Readings - Essay Example Regular prayers and devotions were part of the Christian religious processes for the welfare of the faithful and it was this formed the basis of the development of timekeeping technology and its dominance of our current capitalistic societies. It was not that time keeping was not there earlier, but the development of the clock as an expression of new timekeeping technologies removed the vagaries of nature that inhibit regulatory and order in the pervious time keeping technologies. Starting from the fourteenth centuries clock towers emerged in cities and towns to dominate life the life of their citizens (1). Other technologies may have come and may also lay claim to be all pervasive in human civilization, but there is no technology that has pervaded every niche of human presence and dominated the activities of humankind. The orderly punctual existence brought on by the mechanical clock is not in keeping with basic nature of humankind and yet, modern civilization remains a slave to the chimes of the mechanical clock. The regular chimes of mechanical time in seconds and minutes are in disharmony with the irregular nature of the human body, yet in modern civilization, basic human organic functions are controlled by this mechanical time. Humankind lives, works, and exists now in keeping with tunes of the tool of time keeping technology in the form of the time keeping clock (1). Biology in the Evolution of Technology In Chapter 3, History of the Seventh Kingdom in his book â€Å"What Technology Wants†, Kevin Kelly 2011, opines that the seventh kingdom of technology is not merely an invention of humankind, but has its origins in life itself, and continues to evolve as living organisms have done so from the time life dawned on planet Earth. The six kingdoms of living organisms have evolved and adapted over several hundred millions of generations in an unbroken link, and also learnt to build and evolve external structures. Structures to live in are the most commo n of these external structures. Such shelters of an animal are extension of the animal itself, and in this manner technology is the extension of humankind. This is visible in all the technologies developed and used by humankind, such as even the clothes that we wear. Technology in essence represents an external repository for human ideas (2). An evaluation of the evolution of human technology demonstrates a number of similarities with the evolution of genetic organisms. The manner in which a particular species of technology evolves over time is very similar to that of genealogical blueprint of species evolution, with the difference that in technology it is the expression of ideas and not the work of genes. Different branches of technology combine to create new products, just as evolution in organisms evolves through mating. Evolution in technology is parallel to evolution of nature. An example of this lies in the transformation of simple alphabets into books, which are the storehous es of human knowledge. This is similar to the transformation of DNA into cells and organisms (2). Yet there are differences too in the manner in which technology differs from living organisms. Organisms can be long-living while many technologies are short-lived. Innovations in organisms are passed down from parent down to the offspring vertically, while innovations in technology

Environmental Justice In Class, Gender, and Race Essay

Environmental Justice In Class, Gender, and Race - Essay Example Fair treatment signifies that no particular community or group of individuals should bear unbalanced allocation of off-putting or offensive environmental outcomes ensuing from industrial, business and legislative procedures or regulations. 2. The involvement as well as contribution of public directly persuade the decisions taken by the regulatory bodies about the developmental prospects of a particular area and its implications on the environment of that area. Thus, meaningful involvement is of paramount significance as it generates awareness in the mass not only towards their environment but also provide them with the justice to have a better living conditions. Meaningful involvement enables people belonging to that geographical are to understand the implications of the hazards caused by the establishment of the industrial setup or any other kind of arrangement that may have devastating consequences on their health and welfare. Generating awareness is the basic step towards any righteousness and when it comes to environment it becomes supreme. The altered environmental conditions cannot be replenished which not only affects the health of the inhabitants but potentially affects the climatic conditions as well. Therefore, meaningful participation/ involvement in matters related with the environment of the community is highly imperative. Instigators of Environmental Justice Movement have these thoughts in their concise that some communities are being treated as very high while others are not privileged and therefore their lives could be put in danger for the developmental benefit of the privileged communities. The Civil Rights Movement (1960s) paved the way for inciting awareness and provided an understanding to the people about the health hazards of their families and community as a whole. Gradually, with augmenting awareness the concern about the

Analysis & Critique of Canadian Court System Essay

Analysis & Critique of Canadian Court System - Essay Example These models are the inquisitorial and the adversary models. The Canadian Court System mostly applies the adversarial process in its legal processes. Adversarial justice system is the best approach to addressing justice and equality in court systems and the Canadian Courts should continue using it. Reasons for the Adversary Justice System The ultimate concern of the adversary court system is to ensure equal treatment between the prosecution and defense. The court assumes a neutral position and acts as referee between the two parties. This system requires all parties to adhere to the law in responding to different issues in the court. For instance, police officers must use the procedures that the law accepts to obtain evidence from suspects or the accused. The court will determine whether the police used the appropriate ways of gathering evidence that are recognized by the law and are free from deception and other malpractices. The neutral state of the court ensures a fair trial for t he accused (see Law Commission). Adversary system stresses on strict observance of the law in seeking justice for all parties involved in a case. This characteristic gives the system an added advantage over the inquisitorial justice system. Inquisitorial justice system involves the court in determining facts and evidence about a case. Therefore, the system gives room for bias where the court can favor one side of the case. This is unlike the adversary system that advocates for observance of the law in determining facts about a case. Moreover, the inquisitorial system denies the accused the right of privacy. The system requires the accused to collaborate with the police and other court officials in the process of gathering evidence. The accused has no right of remaining silent throughout the process unlike in the adversary system where the accused has the right of choosing to remain silent throughout the court process. Courts in the adversary justice system act as supervisors of the actions of the prosecution and the accused and eliminate any practices that conflict with the law. The system does not grant the court the authority of supporting the prosecution against the accused. This form of fairness does not exist in the inquisitorial justice system. It is possible for the authority or the police to coerce their authority on the accused in their attempt to gather evidence against him or her. The law does not allow use of evidence that is a result of coercion of authority. Police officers are known to use excessive power in their attempt to gather evidence against victims of crime. Therefore, involving the court and the police in the process is not in the best interests of ensuring equal and just treatment for offenders (see Prasad). The adversary system becomes even stronger when looking at emerging trends in the field of law. For instance, there have been efforts to introduce the system of restorative justice in the court process. Restorative justice is an em erging trend in the court system where victims and offenders interact in the process of seeking justice. Legal procedures are not the basic requirements of punishing an offender under restorative justice. Instead, the offender must take absolute responsibility for his or her actions by convincing the victims that he or she will not repeat such an offense in the future. The system does not recognize the state as an agent that feels the effect of law breaking. It holds the notion that actions of offenders

International monetary policy Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

International monetary policy - Term Paper Example Under that regime higher employment and sustainable economic growth was regarded through low inflation as one of the theoretical framework of monetary policy (Solow & Taylor, 1998). The effects of money supply decisions are transmitted through interest rate channel through the economy. The transmission mechanism in the economy is not as simple as it seems since there are uncertainties about timings, expectations, exchange rate, interest rate and balance of payments (Canada, 1999). This traditional framework of monetary policy has been effective for the domestic and closed economies but with the changing scenarios of economic integration and interdependence. This emergence of new economic activities across borders gave birth to a new dimension of monetary policy which was named as International Monetary Policy. International monetary policy analyses the effects of policy decisions over international finances of a country through exchange rates (Odell, 1982). Monetary policy only overlook the domestic aspect of interest rate while in international monetary policy the focus is more on balance of payments and on balance of trade. Policy decision of money supply lead to appreciation/ depreciation of currency while other factors remain same due to which exchange rate may overshoot instantly. Considering such complications and impediments, international monetary policy can serve the purpose to achieve target through either stabilizing exchange rate or through fixed exchange rate or through currency unions or through dollarization (Scammell, 1975). So, traditional monetary policy doctrine failed to capture the independent nature of monetary policy. The regime of International monetary policy was first acknowledged around four decades ago which recognized the international monetary policy spill over and helped in reconsidering and reshaping the macroeconomic and open economy monetary models. International policy regime since its

606 week 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

606 week 1 - Assignment Example For example, if someone is involved in criminal operations and security agents feel that getting into his system without his permission maybe the way to get evidence against him then that will be ethical. Also, if a company suspects something wrong is going on with its network then it maybe ethical to investigate the network connected to its network ( Bejtlich, 2003) . Ethical hacking is a good practice as it helps companies to enhance security of their computer system. Without proper audit of the computer system no real computer security exist. However, the certificate must be issued with a lot of caution and the authorized hackers should testify up on oaths. A Defensive Network Architecture is an information planning for the network security system which is well maintained and controlled and very closely monitored to identify weaknesses in the system (McClure et al., 1999). This architecture must be up to date to resist current forms of attack. Defensive network architect is important mostly for large organization since it helps to monitor their networks. Network monitoring also assist in evaluating environmental changes (McClure et al., 1999). For example, when there is an increase or decrease in traffic and assets which are currently maintained and secured. Our organization have an architecture in place which they use to control and monitor their security system. Since it is an organization which deals with confidential documents, this helps to secure their data. In conclusion, defensible network has become so important that on 14th March, 2014, Scott Air Force Base III marked a major progression when they signed a department of Defenses Joint Information Environment (Shelly, 2014). Shell, Petruske (2014) Cyberspace milestone reached for Air Force Network. Retrieved on 8th April, 2014

Lemurs in Madagascar Assignment Essay Example for Free

Lemurs in Madagascar Assignment Essay What are Madagascar’s biomes? Discuss the major features of at least one of these biomes. Use the textbook for biome examples. Madagascar is a tropical rainforest, rain forest savanna and grasslands. The rain forest receives 120 inches of rain at least a year. It has very wet and dense vegetation within the trees. Anywhere from 70 plus percent of animal life lives in the trees. It is filled with lakes, river, swamps and a wide variety of different terrain. There is an overabundance of green plant life that strives on the heavy rains received each year. The forest floor is full of nutrients which the large tree strive on giving the canopy effects and which houses so much plant and animal life. 2. What changes happening in Madagascar are posing challenges for lemurs? Give details about the sources, time scale, and types of change. All the time the environment is changing by people moving in and getting more populated. As people come into a new area they may alter a Lemurs normal route or main food supply in the area by cutting down a certain tree such as bamboo. 3. Which types of lemurs are adapting to the changes? Which types of lemurs are not adapting well? Why? The less vulnerable lemurs are good at adapting to a secondary environment with people. The vulnerable or endangered lemurs are having hard time moving and settling into a new food source or habitat which is causing them to go  extinct faster. Ringtail lemurs can adapt and defiantly go to multiple environments. 4. What behavioral and physical traits are being favored in lemurs in the changing Madagascar environment? People are studying lemurs to find out if you can teach other lemurs certain straight so that can adapt to a new type of environment. Such as eating habitats and what they eat. How the move and migrate from place to place. 5. Why might lemurs not evolve to adapt to the changes in Madagascar? They may not never adapt due to the constant changes in the environment nonstop. Some lemurs can adapt with evolution over hundreds of year but with humans within a few years they can destroy an entire habitat along with food sources within a year. The constant changes always leave the lemurs on their toes. Constantly roaming from one place to another 6. Which biogeochemical cycles may be altered by anthropogenic activities on Madagascar, and how? Many things may be altered such as the soils and living organisms by people moving into the new areas in such a rapid rate. What toll does this take on the environments such as global warming and pollutants in that areas now? What do the changes in the smaller spectrum of things do to the overall climate? Reference â€Å"Lemurs in Madagascar: Surviving on an Island of Change.† Films Media Group, 2006. Films On Demand.

Expression of TDP43 in Development of ALS Model Zebrafish

Expression of TDP43 in Development of ALS Model Zebrafish Change in expression of TDP43 in various organs during development of ALS model zebrafish. Anuj Dhoj Raut Introduction Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the devastating motor neuron disease that is characterized by progressive degeneration of both upper and lower motor neuron that control voluntary movement of body. The degeneration of the neurons seen in ALS result in muscle weakness, spasticity and atrophy of both cranial and spinal nerves muscle groups. Since there is often respiratory muscle involvement, aspiration pneumonia is the most common cause of death for the patients with ALS. At present, ALS is invariably fatal disease with no absolute cure and patients usually die within 3-5 years after the clinical onset of symptoms. The mean age of onset of ALS is between 55 and 65 years with slightly more prevalence in male (Male: Female ratio ~ 1.5:1) (1). Even though, incidence rate of ALS are different in different countries of the world, globally average annual incident rate is between 1.5 and 2.5 per 100,000 populations. There has been an increase in death rate of ALS and current internatio nal death rates for ALS have be close to 1 per 100,000 population per year(1). Currently, riluzole, an inhibitor of glutamate release, is the only disease modifying treatment available for the disease and can extends life only for couple of months (2,3). The etiology of ALS is currently unknown. However, approximately 10% of ALS patients have family history for ALS (Familial ALS;FALS) and remaining 90% of case occur sporadically (Sporadic ALS; SALS)(4). Although definitive evidence for environmental factor that cause ALS has remain mostly unknown, the evidence of genetic alternation that cause ALS has been increasing. Till date, only known cause of ALS is mutation in the gene. Mutations in more than 13 different types of genes have already been identified that can cause FALS. FALS is often a Mendelian inheritance with high penetrance, although most cases are autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, autosomal recessive pedigrees have also been reported (5,6). Even though, FALS are cause due to genetic alternation, FALS are indistinguishable from SALS form histopathological perspective and both the types’ presents with similar sign and symptoms, thus suggesting common intra-cellular processes that lead to the disease symptoms. Among those 13 different types of gene mutation that causes FALS, mutation in Transactive response DNA binding Protein 43kDa (TDP-43) gene is seen in approximately 4% of FALS and 2% of SALS (7). Transactive response DNA binding protein 43kDa (TDP-43) is a DNA/RNA-binding protein encode by the TARDBP gene on chromosome 1. TDP-43 is an ubiquitously expressed nuclear protein capable of shutting between the nucleus and cytoplasm (8). TDP43 is present in almost all the tissue of a body and have different roles in different tissues (9). Although the precise cellular function of TDP-43 is unknown, TDP-43 has been implicated in regulating of gene transcription (9),alternative exon splicing (10) and mRNA stability (11). Under normal physiological conditions, TDP-43 resides predominantly in the nucleus where it involved in gene expression. But, in abnormal pathological conditions such as ALS, TDP-43 is mislocalized in the cytoplasm as inclusions body (12,13) . Analysis of TDP-43 in the brain and spinal cord of ALS patients reveled that TDP-43 is pathologically modified and redistribution to the cytoplasm, which is accompanied by loss of normal nuclear function and a toxic gain-of-function in the cytoplasm (14,15). The mislocalization of TDP-43 into cytoplasm is believed to be cause of neuron loss in ALS patients. Moreover, TDP-43 positive inclusions are also found either independent or partially colocalize with the other characteristic inclusion, such as tau, ÃŽ ±-synuclei, ÃŽ ²-amyloid and polyglutamines, which are found in other neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s disease, Pick disease and Parkinson’s disease. Interestingly, TDP-43 positive cytoplasmic inclusion are found in almost all ALS patient along with other neurodegenerative disease (16). Although evidence suggest that there is a definitive association between ALS and TDP-43, above observations make it confusing to whether TDP-43 pathology is causative or a secondary response in this disease. Studies done to unravel if TDP-43 is pathology or secondary response to ALS have come with conflicting result. Moreover, the present of TDP-43 in inclusion body of another neurodegenerative has been a mystery. The precise role of TDP-43 in ALS and other neurodegenerative disease is not well known and needs further evaluation. Study, in the mouse has shown that TDP-43 protein is essential for normal prenatal development. Homozygous loss of TDP-43 in mouse cause early embryo death. But, in heterozygous loss TDP-43 mouse, the TDP-43 protein levels were nearly normal suggesting an auto-regulatory mechanism controlling this protein levels(17,18). Moreover, research on mRNA expression levels of TDP-43 protein in various tissues has shown that TDP-43 plays different roles in different tissue(9). Furthermore, about 40 different mutant in TDP-43 have already been identified so far that is associated with ALS (10). But all this various types of mutations in TDP43 have only affected motor nerve of spinal cord and brain. At the same time, mutation and/or overexpression of TDP-43 has not cause any pathology alternation in other cells and tissue of the body or has been found to be associated with diseases of other organ system. A protein that is so vital for a development of organisms that it’s absent cause deat h, but when there is mutation in its gene has only abnormalities in nervous system and that abnormalities are evidence after mid-life is yet to be understood. Moreover, within the nervous system mutation in TDP-43 seems to affect only motor neuron and at the same time spares other neuron such as sensory, autonomic nervous system. And this preference to the motor neuron by mutant TDP-43 is even seen till the late stage of the disease. Physiological roles of TDP-43 and early cellular pathogenic effects caused by disease associated mutations in differentiated neurons is yet to be fully understand. Causative link between TDP-43 positive inclusion and ALS can be well established, if nuclear to cytoplasmic expression of mutant TDP-43 could be study in vivo and in real time. And at the same time, will also be able to understand if TDP-43 pathology is causative or a secondary response to ALS and other neurodegenerative disease. Transgenic rodent models of ALS have been extremely valuable in providing some insight into biological mechanisms underlying ALS. But, due to difficulty in conducting in vivo real time study with rodent, change in intra cellular expression of TDP-43 has not being well understand. The zebrafish has recently emerged as powerful genetic model system for studying ALS. External development and transparency make it great tool to study the development stages of almost all the organ. External development of its eggs allows easy observation and manipulation of early development process. And, transparency makes is a powerful tool to observe the change at cellular level by using fluorescent reporters. With the help of fluorescent reporter, specific cell type and protein expression within those cells can be easily identify and study in vivo and in real time in zebrafish. In addition, zebrafish is a vertebrate and their nervous system is highly conserved with higher vertebrates including humans a nd many pertinent feature of the nervous system start to develop within 1 day of development. Moreover, genetic manipulations are comparatively easy in zebrafish. Therefore, zebrafish is a great model system to study the association of TDP-43 and ALS. In this study, I am trying to understand the change in expression of mutant and overexpressed TDP-43 protein in different tissue of zebrafish. At the same time also will be evaluating the change in expressions of TDP-43 as the zebrafish grow from embryo to adult. I will then compare the change in level of TDP-43 from asymptomatic stage of ALS zebrafish to that of symptomatic stage of ALS zebrafish. In order to conduct this experiment, transgenic zebrafish with human mutant TDP-43 will be created by genetic engineering. Human mutant TDP-43 will be fused with green florescent protein (GFP) before creating transgenic zebrafish. By combining human mutant TDP-43 with GFP will allow easy visualization of TDP-43 protein in zebrafish. Then, image of the fluorescent labeled TDP-43 at different stage of development of zebrafish period will be capture with fluorescent microscope. References 1.Logroscino, G., Traynor, B., Hardiman, O., Couratier, P., Mitchell, J., Swingler, R., and Beghi, E. (2008) Descriptive epidemiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: new evidence and unsolved issues. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery Psychiatry 79, 6-11 2.Bensimon, G., Lacomblez, L., and Meininger, V. (1994) A controlled trial of riluzole in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS/Riluzole Study Group. The New England journal of medicine 330, 585-591 3.Miller, R., Mitchell, J., Lyon, M., and Moore, D. (2007) Riluzole for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/motor neuron disease (MND). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 1 4.Pasinelli, P., and Brown, R. H. (2006) Molecular biology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: insights from genetics. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 710-723 5.Mulder, D. W., Kurland, L. T., Offord, K. P., and Beard, C. M. (1986) Familial adult motor neuron disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Neurology 36, 511-517 6.Gros-Louis, F., Gaspar, C., and Rouleau, G. A. (2006) Genetics of familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Biochimica et biophysica acta 1762, 956-972 7.Corrado, L., Ratti, A., Gellera, C., Buratti, E., Castellotti, B., Carlomagno, Y., Ticozzi, N., Mazzini, L., Testa, L., and Taroni, F. (2009) High frequency of TARDBP gene mutations in Italian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Human mutation 30, 688-694 8.Winton, M. J., Igaz, L. M., Wong, M. M., Kwong, L. K., Trojanowski, J. Q., and Lee, V. M.-Y. (2008) Disturbance of nuclear and cytoplasmic TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP-43) induces disease-like redistribution, sequestration, and aggregate formation. Journal of Biological Chemistry 283, 13302-13309 9.Ou, S., Wu, F., Harrich, D., Garcà ­a-Martà ­nez, L. F., and Gaynor, R. B. (1995) Cloning and characterization of a novel cellular protein, TDP-43, that binds to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 TAR DNA sequence motifs. Journal of virology 69, 3584-3596 10.Lagier-Tourenne, C., Polymenidou, M., and Cleveland, D. W. (2010) TDP-43 and FUS/TLS: emerging roles in RNA processing and neurodegeneration. Human molecular genetics 19, R46-R64 11.Strong, M. J., Volkening, K., Hammond, R., Yang, W., Strong, W., Leystra-Lantz, C., and Shoesmith, C. (2007) TDP43 is a human low molecular weight neurofilament ( h NFL) mRNA-binding protein. Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience 35, 320-327 12.Arai, T., Hasegawa, M., Akiyama, H., Ikeda, K., Nonaka, T., Mori, H., Mann, D., Tsuchiya, K., Yoshida, M., and Hashizume, Y. (2006) TDP-43 is a component of ubiquitin-positive tau-negative inclusions in frontotemporal lobar degeneration and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Biochemical and biophysical research communications 351, 602-611 13.Mackenzie, I. R. (2007) The neuropathology of FTD associated with ALS. Alzheimer Disease Associated Disorders 21, S44-S49 14.Kabashi, E., Lin, L., Tradewell, M. L., Dion, P. A., Bercier, V., Bourgouin, P., Rochefort, D., Hadj, S. B., Durham, H. D., and Velde, C. V. (2010) Gain and loss of function of ALS-related mutations of TARDBP (TDP-43) cause motor deficits in vivo. Human molecular genetics 19, 671-683 15.Neumann, M. (2009) Molecular neuropathology of TDP-43 proteinopathies. International journal of molecular sciences 10, 232-246 16.Da Cruz, S., and Cleveland, D. W. (2011) Understanding the role of TDP-43 and FUS/TLS in ALS and beyond. Current opinion in neurobiology 21, 904-919 17.Kraemer, B. C., Schuck, T., Wheeler, J. M., Robinson, L. C., Trojanowski, J. Q., Lee, V. M., and Schellenberg, G. D. (2010) Loss of murine TDP-43 disrupts motor function and plays an essential role in embryogenesis. Acta neuropathologica 119, 409-419 18.Sephton, C. F., Good, S. K., Atkin, S., Dewey, C. M., Mayer, P., Herz, J., and Yu, G. (2010) TDP-43 is a developmentally regulated protein essential for early embryonic development. Journal of Biological Chemistry 285, 6826-6834